The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, as she accused mobile phones and social networks of \u201cstealing our children\u2019s childhood\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mette Frederiksen used her speech on Tuesday at the opening of Folketing, the Danish parliament, to announce the proposal, in which she said: \u201cWe have unleashed a monster.\u201d She added: \u201cNever before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many children also have difficulty reading and concentrating, said Frederiksen, adding that \u201con screens they see things no child or young person should see\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She did not specify which social networks the new measures would affect, but said it would cover \u201cseveral\u201d social media platforms. She said there would be an option for parents to give permission to their children to use social media from the age of 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is hoped the ban could come into effect as early as next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It follows the lead of Australia, which is\u00a0introducing a ban on social media platforms\u00a0including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for under-16s, and Norway where the prime minister, Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re, has also said he would enforce a\u00a0strict minimum age limit\u00a0of 15 on social media, raising it from 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
St\u00f8re said last year that it would be \u201can uphill battle\u201d but that politicians must intervene to protect children from the \u201cpower of the algorithms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Denmark\u2019s minister of digitalisation, Caroline Stage, said her government\u2019s announcement was a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d. She said: \u201cI\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: we\u2019ve been too naive. We\u2019ve left children\u2019s digital lives to platforms that never had their wellbeing in mind. We must move from digital captivity to community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her speech, the prime minister cited figures showing that 60% of 11- to 19-year-old boys did not see a single friend in their free time, while 94% of Danish children in seventh grade had a profile on social media before they were 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMobile phones and social media are stealing our children\u2019s childhood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement comes after Denmark\u00a0said in February\u00a0that mobile phones would be banned in all schools and after-school clubs. The decision was made on the recommendation of a government wellbeing commission, set up to investigate growing dissatisfaction among children and young people, that found children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings of research into the impact of social media on children and young people is forcing governments around the world to reconsider access to social media. In June, Greece proposed the EU set an \u201cage of digital adulthood\u201d that would prevent children from accessing social media without their parents\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
theguardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, as she accused mobile phones and social networks of \u201cstealing our children\u2019s childhood\u201d. Mette Frederiksen used her speech on Tuesday at the opening of Folketing, the Danish parliament, to announce the proposal, in which she said: \u201cWe have unleashed a monster.\u201d She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4836,11261,9951,12161,3347,8348,5777,11183,9214,287,5347,11538,5432,159,5468,9127,2264,5993,3874,1379,1198,11375,11698,3174,6736,8810,6365,5349,10041,7592,36,5140,9550],"class_list":["post-46795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-access","tag-accused","tag-age","tag-age-limit","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-banned","tag-boys","tag-child","tag-children","tag-denmark","tag-digital","tag-digitalisation","tag-eu","tag-facebook","tag-february","tag-government","tag-greece","tag-lead","tag-norway","tag-parliament","tag-phones","tag-politicians","tag-prime-minister","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-smartphone","tag-social-media","tag-speech","tag-tiktok","tag-world","tag-young","tag-youtube"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46796,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795\/revisions\/46796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}